Having listened to two tracks from this now, it’s clearly nothing more than a mash up of Beatles music and solo Beatle tracks. Anyone who’s at all familiar with the Beatles would know that.
Now one could say that it’s plausible, if you believe in say the Multiverse theory that there is a world where the Beatles never broke up, far less likely would be anyone being able to bring back a tape, much less one that would work in our tape players. But clearly, there is a big gaping problem with this idea that comes off the second you put the first song on.
The Beatles were NOT self referential. Yes, let’s say they never broke up, you very well would have new Beatles songs that incorporated what would have become solo Beatle tracks in some combination, but it would NOT include that much of their previous output. The thing that makes the Beatles the most influential band in the entire history of rock and roll, and possibly even the entire history of music is that they were always original, they were always doing something new. The closest they came to rehashing anything was in the lyrics to Glass Onion where they say, “I’ve told you about….”
@jfos – you are right, if I’d just waited for the download to complete, it would have been clear that you nailed it.
Basically what this is, is someone trying to be the next Danger Mouse. In case you don’t know who Danger Mouse is, he is half of the duo Gnarls Barkley, who had a HUGE hit a few years back with “Crazy”. Prior to this, he had produced a number of albums and worked with some of the biggest stars in contemporary music. But how he became famous was by remixing the Beatles. He was just a college student with aspirations to be a DJ, so he mashed up the Beatles’ White Album with Jay-Z’s Black Album and put it out on the web as the Grey Album under the name Danger Mouse. Though the Beatles tried to sue to block distribution, and he never actually sold the music, just gave it away on the internet, his skills attracted enough attention that he’s now a star in his own right and a highly sought after producer. James Richards is someone who thinks he could be the next Danger Mouse, simple as that.